entrepreneur’s opportunity recognition

The primary goal of this assignment is to evaluate and determine the entrepreneur’s ability to recognize opportunities. The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on entrepreneurs’ opportunity theories and principles, and to connect them to what the guest entrepreneur presenter said about their path and experience. Khasif Saleem, the entrepreneur, was invited to deliver the presentation stated by the course instructor in 2015. His business got the invite of the Euro world in 2015, and he was also a recipient of the business awards with business news. Furthermore, he has earned the youngest entrepreneur of the year nomination awards for stages awards in Australia as well as the finest use of technology in Australia. His business has now grown to support 45 different clients globally and uses propriety technology. The entrepreneur did talk about how he uses propriety technology for his business.

Literature Review

The presenter, Khasif Saleem, has a solid background in software engineering. In his course of his career, Khasif came across some people in a workshop complaining about their problems with assets management, and they kept losing materials. The materials that they lost were in the form of the construction materials. In any construction job, materials are considered as the most crucial elements. Khasif approached the group and asked how they lost their materials. The group explained to him exactly what happened and their losses they incurred. After carefully listening and analyzing the situation, he looked around to find something that could help solve the problem. He, however, did not find any program solution for the problem, so he decided to come up with his solution by building his program to address the issue. After a while, he had an opportunity to work on a mine site, which provided him with the best opportunity to test his program and confirm whether it was working as required. The project manager asked whether he could help with the problem of the company losing materials. He presented his software program even though the director was not entirely convinced since he was not popular. The program was quite expensive and did not provide some of the required features as to be taken by any program of the kind aiming to provide a solution to the present problem. He offered to give out his program to the client free of charge but still retain some control over the program. His software program was quite simplified and easy to use. It was designed according to the customers’ requirements through frequent interaction with the end users.

It is clear from the presentation that the Khasif agrees to the principle and concept of entrepreneurial awareness. Also, there is a comprehensive framework used in the illustration of the opportunity recognition process. As an entrepreneur one is required to be well equipped with some certain level of education and experiences. For Khasif, he fits into this since he has a good background in software engineering.

Entrepreneurial alertness is another principle in used in the concept of entrepreneur opportunity. It is the process and perspective that helps an individual to be more conversant and aware of any changes, shift, opportunities and overlooked possibilities. Khasif illustrates this particular trait by the fact that he overheard a group of people in a workshop complaining about the problems they were facing. Analyzing the concept of alertness from an economic perspective, it can be explained as having the ability to notice, without search those opportunities that have been assumed or overlooked. Moreover, alertness could also be founded on the basic understanding of the cognitive capacities and processes such as prior knowledge, and possessing the ability to process information skills and social interactions. After the presenter overheard the group talk about their problem, he approached them and asked aiming to get more information. He had the ability to identify the problem due to his information processing skills and social interactions.

The entrepreneur has prior knowledge another theory of entrepreneur opportunity. Prior knowledge refers to the distinctive information that is possessed by an individual concerning a particular subject matter, which could be a result of either education or work experience. After gathering information on the problem facing the construction company, Saleem immediately realized that a program software would be the best solution. The amount and level of information that an individual has significantly influenced their abilities to identify the most suitable solutions when facing problems.

The social network is another theory of entrepreneurship opportunity is also evident in the presentation. Social networks help in engaging productive economic activities. By the theory of social network, individuals are interconnected through their social networks. Social network helps an entrepreneur get support, any relevant information, and assistance. From the presentation, Saleem did interact with the clients at the site and construction company to have a better understanding on some of their requirements regarding the software program he was designing. It is through the interaction that he was able to come up with a program that addresses all the requirements and problems of the company. Moreover, through the interaction, he was able to come up with a system that was user-friendly and more reliable. Through social interaction, a favorable condition through which information exchange can take place is usually created resulting in the creation of new knowledge.

Khasif Saleem is quite flexible in that from what they had earlier developed they were to modify it to suite the client’s needs. Moreover, he was willing to work with the other members of the company as well as the project manager. Flexibility is very crucial in the field of entrepreneurship and the development of a business idea. It is also important for an entrepreneur to be flexible when searching for either partners or funding. For the presented case scenario, Khasif was quite flexible since they decided to offer their software program for free to the client even though they still had some control. Flexibility is a key strategy to uncovering some of the unexpected opportunities during a recession.

Conclusion

The study aims at developing and analyzing some of the individual cognitive capabilities in flexibility, alertness, knowledge and social network considered as critical to opportunity recognition. Using the experiences presented by Khasif Saleem, it is evident regardless of the varying journal and literature articles, majority agree to some common factors and features that an entrepreneur should possess for them to effectively manage and improve utility and recognize opportunities. Through his presented experiences, it is an illustration of the framework suggested by various articles. The articles also addressed the elements involved in the process of opportunity recognition that Khasif exhibited. Hence the definition of an entrepreneur that can be drawn from Khasif Saleem experiences, is an individual who has the ability to recognize and identify an opportunity as a result of a combination of organized and planned search effort accompanied by unprompted chances.

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